Exam question 4 · Correlation is not cause: ice cream and sunburn

Ascertain the factor which principally explains the association between national chocolate consumption and the number of Nobel Prizes awarded.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, factor · What happens: ascertain, explain, award · To what, where: factor, association, Nobel Prizes

This is exam question 4 of lesson 180 «Correlation is not cause: ice cream and sunburn» of the world course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 factor	det
3	factor	factor	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 explains	nsubj
5	principally	principally	ADV	_	6 explains	advmod
6	explains	explain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 factor	acl:relcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 association	det
8	association	association	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 explains	obj
9	between	between	ADP	_	12 consumption	case
10	national	national	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 consumption	amod
11	chocolate	chocolate	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 consumption	compound
12	consumption	consumption	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 association	nmod
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 number	cc
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 number	det
15	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 consumption	conj
16	of	of	ADP	_	18 Prizes	case
17	Nobel	Nobel	PROPN	Number=Sing	18 Prizes	compound
18	Prizes	Prize	PROPN	Number=Plur	15 number	nmod
19	awarded	award	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	18 Prizes	acl
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the factor		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent factor=Topic
2	explain speech: assert	present	the factor	the association	between national chocolate consumption and the number of Nobel Prizes; principally property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent association=Topic
3	award	participle		Nobel Prizes not said here		vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

The judges' preference for chocolate

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 judges	det
2	judges	judge	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 preference	nmod:poss
3	'	's	PART	_	2 judges	case
4	preference	preference	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 chocolate	case
6	chocolate	chocolate	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 preference	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prefer		the judges					for chocolate	nom preference «feeling transitive»: poss=agent for=obl

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The wealth of the countries concerned

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 wealth	det
2	wealth	wealth	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 concerned	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 countries	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 countries	det
5	countries	country	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 wealth	nmod
6	concerned	concerned	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

The colour of the prize medal

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 colour	det
2	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 medal	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 medal	det
5	prize	prize	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 medal	compound
6	medal	medal	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 colour	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

The nutritional properties of chocolate

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 properties	det
2	nutritional	nutritional	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 properties	amod
3	properties	property	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 chocolate	case
5	chocolate	chocolate	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 properties	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

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